I squeeze both his shoulders. “I know I’ve been putting a lot on you lately. That was my mistake. I kept holding onto a grudge that didn’t matter anymore, and for that, I’m sorry. I’m sorry it took me so long to see it.”
His eyes are lucid now. Goddammit, what a crybaby brother I’m leaving in command. I’d better win this thing after all.
“You don’t have to apologize,” Yuri rasps. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“But I did. And you’ve been warning me this entire time.”
Don’t alienate the vory; don’t make them mad; don’t lose them. All along, Yuri’s been pointing out my biggest blind spot: not my enemies, but my allies. The ones I should have kept closest.
“I didn’t think it would come to this,” he whispers.
I take off my pakhan’s signet ring and drop it in Yuri’s waiting palm. We don’
